Daniel F. Keefe

• Ph.D.
• University of Minnesota

Inspired by recent advances in digital fabrication, artists and scientists have demonstrated that physical data encodings (i.e., data physicalizations) can increase engagement with data, foster collaboration, and in some cases, improve data legibility and analysis relative to digital alternatives. However, prior empirical studies have only investig...

We are perpetually present in our environment, experiencing it with our senses. Scientific data describes the same environment quantitatively. Our goal is to use scientific and artistic methods to combine these environmental expressions and personal experience through the creation of glyphs visually abstracted from and associated with forms in natu...

We are perpetually present in our environment, experiencing it with our senses. Scientific data describes the same environment quantitatively. Our goal is to use scientific and artistic methods to combine these environmental expressions and personal experience through the creation of glyphs visually abstracted from and associated with forms in natu...

We present V-Mail, a framework of cross-platform applications, interactive techniques, and communication protocols for improved multi-person correspondence about spatial 3D datasets. Inspired by the daily use of e-mail, V-Mail seeks to enable a similar style of rapid, multi-person communication accessible on any device; however, it aims to do this...

For many outside of the scientific community, big data and the forms it takes, such as statistical lists, spreadsheets and graphs, often seem abstract and unintelligible. This book investigates how digital fabrication and traditional making approaches are being used to present data in newly engaging and interesting ways. The first part of the book...

Data physicalizations (3D printed terrain models, anatomical scans, or even abstract data) can naturally engage both the visual and haptic senses in ways that are difficult or impossible to do with traditional planar touch screens and even immersive digital displays. Yet, the rigid 3D physicalizations produced with today's most common 3D printers a...

As computing capacity increases and data grows in both size and complexity, we are capable of understanding our surroundings with increasing nuance. Visualizing this often-multivariate environmental data presents complex visual scenes to be navigated, parsed, analyzed, and communicated. We draw from both the natural world and artistic color theory...

We, as a society, need artists to help us interpret and explain science, but what does an artist's studio look like when today's science is built upon the language of large, increasingly complex data? This paper presents a data visualization design interface that lifts the barriers for artists to engage with actively studied, 3D multivariate datase...

Visualizations produced by collaborations between artists, scientists, and visualization experts lay claim to being not only more effective in delivering information but also more effective in their abilities to elicit qualities like human connection. However, as prior work in the visualization community has demonstrated, it is difficult to evaluat...

Background: Scapulothoracic upward rotation (UR) is an important shoulder complex motion allowing for a larger functional work space and improved glenohumeral muscle function. However, the kinematic mechanisms producing scapulothoracic UR remain unclear, limiting the understanding of normal and abnormal shoulder movements. Objective: The objecti...

When assessing the value of visualizations, researchers traditionally focus on efficiency, comprehension, or insight. However, analyzing successful data physicalizations leads to a deep appreciation for hedonic qualities. Informed by the role of emotion in psychology, art, design, marketing, and HCI, we argue for an expanded definition of value, ap...

We introduce Artifact-Based Rendering (ABR), a framework of tools, algorithms, and processes that makes it possible to produce real, data-driven 3D scientific visualizations with a visual language derived entirely from colors, lines, textures, and forms created using traditional physical media or found in nature. A theory and process for ABR is pre...

We introduce Artifact-Based Rendering (ABR), a framework of tools, algorithms, and processes that makes it possible to produce real, data-driven 3D scientific visualizations with a visual language derived entirely from colors, lines, textures, and forms created using traditional physical media or found in nature. A theory and process for ABR is pre...

As scientific data grow, larger and more complex, an equally rich visual vocabulary is needed to fully articulate its insights. We present a series of images that are made possible by a recent technical development "Artifact-Based Rendering" [1], a component of our broader effort to create a methodology for scientific visualization that draws on pr...

As scientific data grow, larger and more complex, an equally rich visual vocabulary is needed to fully articulate its insights. We present a series of images that are made possible by a recent technical development "Artifact-Based Rendering" [1], a component of our broader effort to create a methodology for scientific visualization that draws on pr...

We present Bento Box, a virtual reality data visualization technique and bimanual 3D user interface for exploratory analysis of 4D data ensembles. Bento Box helps scientists and engineers make detailed comparative judgments about multiple time-varying data instances that make up a data ensemble (e.g., a group of 10 parameterized simulation runs). T...

Weather Report is a site-specific art installation that entices visitors to examine climate change at a human scale, both physically and metaphorically. Weather data are displayed using the balloons as physical pixels that can be touched, part of an effort to make objective, scientific data graspable by non-scientists. Visitors contrast these objec...

Design by Dragging (DBD) [1] is a virtual design tool, which displays three-dimensional (3D) visualizations of many simulation results obtained by sampling a large design space and ties this visual display together with a new user interface. The design space is explored through mouse-based interactions performed directly on top of the 3D data visua...

A variety of visualization techniques can be utilized to compare multiple Spatial 3D or time-varying Spatial 3D data instances (e.g., comparing pre- versus post-treatment volumetric medical images). However, despite the fact that comparative visualization is frequently needed – scientists, engineers, and even humanists must routinely compare such d...

We introduce a virtual reality 3D user interface (3DUI) for anatomical 2D/3D shape-matching, a challenging task that is part of medical imaging processes required by biomechanics researchers. Manual shape-matching can be thought of as a nuanced version of classic 6 degree-of-freedom docking tasks studied in the 3DUI research community. Our solution...

We explore the role that immersive technologies, specifically virtual reality (VR) and hybrid 2D/3D sketch-based interfaces and visualizations, can play in analytical reasoning for medicine. Two case studies are described: (1) immersive explanations of medical procedures, and (2) immersive design of medical devices. Both tightly integrate 2D imager...

We present Bema, a multimodal user interface that enables scholars of Greek rhetoric and oratory to perform virtual reality studies of ancient political assemblies at the hill of the Pnyx. Named after the flat stone speakers' platform utilized at the Pnyx, the Bema interface supports the high-level task of gaining a nuanced understanding of what it...

In biomechanics studies, researchers collect, via experiments or simulations, datasets with hundreds or thousands of trials, each describing the same type of motion (e.g., a neck flexion-extension exercise) but under different conditions (e.g., different patients, different disease states, pre- and post-treatment). Analyzing similarities and differ...

In recent years 3D has gained increasing amount of attention - interactive visualization of 3D data has become increasingly important and widespread due to the requirements of several application areas, and entertainment industry has brought 3D experience to the reach of wide audiences through games, 3D movies and stereoscopic displays. However, cu...

We present an approach to model dynamic, data-driven source and listener directivity for interactive wave-based sound propagation in virtual environments and computer games. Our directional source representation is expressed as a linear combination of ...

We present a prop-based, tangible interface for 3D interactive visualization of thin fiber structures. These data are commonly found in current bioimaging datasets, for example second-harmonic generation microscopy of collagen fibers in tissue. Our approach uses commodity visualization technologies such as a depth sensing camera and low-cost 3D dis...

We present a discussion of tools, methods, and lessons learned from nearly ten years of work using virtual reality data visualization as a driving problem area for collaborative practice-based STEAM education. This work has spanned multiple universities and design colleges. It has resulted in courses taught to both students majoring in computer sci...

The use of 3D computer graphics is important in a very wide range of applications. However, user interaction with 3D applications is still challenging and often does not lend itself to established techniques that have been developed primarily for 2D ...

Using widely accessible VR technologies, researchers have implemented a series of multimodal spatial interfaces and virtual environments. The results demonstrate the degree to which we can now use low-cost (for example, mobile-phone based) VR environments to create rich virtual experiences involving motion sensing, physiological inputs, stereoscopi...

Understanding how proposed medical devices will interface with humans is a major challenge that impacts both the design of innovative new devices and approval and regulation of existing devices. Today, designing and manufacturing medical devices requires extensive and expensive product cycles. Bench tests and other preliminary analyses are used to...

In this position paper we discuss successes and limitations of current evaluation strategies for scientific visualizations and argue for embracing a mixed methods strategy of evaluation. The most novel contribution of the approach that we advocate is a new emphasis on employing design processes as practiced in related fields (e.g., graphic design,...

We present a mobile multi-touch interface for selecting, querying, and visually exploring data visualized on large, high-resolution displays. Although emerging large (e.g., ∼10 m wide), high-resolution displays provide great potential for visualizing dense, complex datasets, their utility is often limited by a fundamental interaction problem – the...

Although research on virtual reality interventions for persistent pain is in its infancy, this technology holds considerable promise, and research in this field should be pursued.

We present a study of interactive virtual reality visualizations of scientific motions as found in biomechanics experiments. Our approach is threefold. First, we define a taxonomy of motion visualizations organized by the method (animation, interaction, or static presentation) used to depict both the spatial and temporal dimensions of the data. Sec...

Studies of motion are fundamental to science. For centuries, pictures of motion (e.g., the revolutionary photographs by Marey and Muybridge of galloping horses and other animals, da Vinci's detailed drawings of hydrodynamics) have factored importantly in making scientific discoveries possible. Today, there is perhaps no tool more powerful than inte...

We present anchored multi-touch, a technique for extending multi-touch interfaces by using gestures based on both multi-touch surface input and 3D movement of the hand(s) above the surface. These interactions have nearly the same potential for rich, expressive input as do freehand 3D interactions while also having an advantage that the passive hapt...

We present Interactive Slice WIM, a framework for navigating and interrogating volumetric datasets using an interface enabled by a virtual reality environment made of two display surfaces: an interactive multi-touch table, and a stereoscopic display wall. The framework addresses two current challenges in immersive visualization: (1) providing an ap...

We study the formation of the mitral vortex ring during early diastolic filling in a patient-specific left ventricle (LV) using direct numerical simulation. The geometry of the left ventricle is reconstructed from Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) data of a healthy human subject. The left ventricular kinematics is modeled via a cell-based activation...

3D interfaces use motion sensing, physical input, and spatial interaction techniques to effectively control highly dynamic virtual content. Now, with the advent of the Nintendo Wii, Sony Move, and Microsoft Kinect, game developers and researchers must create compelling interface techniques and game-play mechanics that make use of these technologies...

In recent years interactive visualization of 3D data has become increasingly important and widespread due to the requirements of several application areas. However, current user interfaces often lack adequate support for 3D interactions: 2D desktop systems are often limited in cases where natural interaction with 3D content is required, and sophist...

In this work, we explore the potential of combining virtual reality (VR) visualizations of data with physical models generated via rapid 3D prototyping to provide a new style of exploratory data visualization. Holding a physical rapid prototype model in one's hand can provide an immediate and more accurate understanding of a complex 3D form than ca...

We present Slice WIM, a method for overview+detail visualization of volume datasets that explores the potential of new interfaces made possible by a virtual reality (VR) environment made of two display surfaces: an interactive multi-touch table, and a stereoscopic display wall. Slice WIM displays a miniature version of the 3D dataset within a head-...

This paper presents the design, implementation, and lessons learned from developing a multi-surface VR visualization environment. The environment combines a head-tracked vertical VR display with a multi-touch table display. An example user interface technique called Shadow Grab is presented to demonstrate the potential of this design. Extending rec...

This paper presents a framework and detailed vision for using immersive virtual reality (VR) environments to improve the design, verification, validation, and manufacture of medical devices. Major advances in medical device design and manufacture currently require extensive and expensive product cycles that include animal and clinical trials. The c...

We present a framework for combining automated and interactive visual analysis techniques for use on high-resolution biomechanical data. Analyzing the complex 3D motion of, e.g., pigs chewing or bats flying, can be enhanced by providing investigators with a multi-view interface that allows interaction across multiple modalities and representations....

Advances in high-performance (supercomputer) simulations are revolutionizing biomedical research. Figure 1 shows a visualiazation of data from a cutting-edge computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation of blood flow through a replacement heart valve. Our collaborators in medical device design hope to use these data as part of a new approach to re...

Scientific-visualization research is, nearly by necessity, interdisciplinary. In addition to their collaborators in application domains (for example, cell biology), researchers regularly build on close ties with disciplines related to visualization, such as graphics, human-computer interaction, and cognitive science. One of these ties is the connec...

This paper presents Drawing with the Flow, a sketch-based interface for illustrating 2D vector fields. Drawing with the Flow explores the problem of making scientific visualization tools accessible to artists and illustrators, who have a finely tuned visual design sense, but do not typically have the programming or mathematical background required...

We present an interactive framework for exploring space-time and form-function relationships in experimentally collected high-resolution biomechanical data sets. These data describe complex 3D motions (e.g. chewing, walking, flying) performed by animals and humans and captured via high-speed imaging technologies, such as biplane fluoroscopy. In ana...

Despite the many challenges understanding how best to interact with large format displays, they are becoming increasingly popular for data analysis tasks in a variety of domains, including scientific, information, and geo-visualization. (Figure 1a shows a relatively small, 60” display; even larger, wall-size displays are also popular.) In order to...

This paper presents the view that computer tools to support creative 3D modeling practice in art and visual design may benefit significantly from utilizing spatial 3D input captured from our hands. Traditionally, real-world applications have made only limited use of this style of input because it can be difficult to control. Recent interface advanc...

1 INTRODUCTION Rehabilitation is a lengthy and difficult process. Despite the speed with which physicians can diagnose an injury, for full recovery patients must regularly meet with their physical therapist (PT) as well as daily perform their prescribed, unsupervised exercise routine. PTs usually give their patient simple diagrams, sketches, and te...

We present four studies investigating tools and methodologies for artist-scientist-technologist collaboration in designing multivariate, virtual reality (VR) visualizations. Design study 1 identifies the promise of 3D drawing-style interfaces for VR design and also establishes limitations of these tools with respect to precision and support for ani...

We present novel visual and interactive techniques for exploratory visualization of animal kinematics using instantaneous helical axes (IHAs). The helical axis has been used in orthopedics, biomechanics, and structural mechanics as a construct for describing rigid body motion. Within biomechanics, recent imaging advances have made possible accurate...

We present Dynamic Dragging, a virtual reality (VR) technique for input of smooth 3D trajectories with varying curvature. Users "drag" a virtual pen behind a hand-held tracked stylus to sweep out curving 3D paths in the air. Previous explorations of dragging-style input have established its utility for producing controlled, smooth inputs relative t...

An abstract is not available.

We present Drawing on Air, a haptic-aided input technique for drawing controlled 3D curves through space. Drawing on Air addresses a control problem with current 3D modeling approaches based on sweeping movement of the hands through the air. While artists praise the immediacy and intuitiveness of these systems, a lack of control makes it nearly imp...

Researchers at Brown University's Visualization Research Lab collaborated with artists on visualization problems to solve visualization problems driven by science. A class on designing VR scientific visualizations was cotaught by professors and students from the university's computer science departments and Rhode Island School of Design's (RISDs) i...

An abstract is not available.

We present a threads and halos representation for interactive volume rendering of vector-field structure and describe a number of additional components that combine to create effective visualizations of multivalued 3D scientific data. After filtering linear structures, such as flow lines, into a volume representation, we use a multilayer volume ren...

Introduction Art, in particular painting, has had clear impacts on the style, techniques, and processes of scientific visualization. Artists strive to create visual forms and ideas that are evocative and convey meaning or tell a story. Over time, painters and other artists have developed sophisticated techniques, as well as a finely tuned aesthetic...

Particle Flurries is an interactive approach to 3D flow visualization. The approach produces a "synoptic visualization" and is used to examine both internal and external flows.

this paper, we report on the subjective usefulness of two virtual reality (VR) display systems, a CAVE and a Fish Tank VR display, for a scientific visualization application (see Figure 1). We conducted an anecdotal study to learn five domainexpert users' impressions about the relative usefulness of the two VR systems for their purposes of using th...

We present examples of four different custom built in- put devices and discuss their benets to virtual environment interfaces. In each case, we describe the underlying moti- vation behind the device's creation and present interaction techniques that were made possible by each device's unique characteristics.

We present Particle Flurries, a case study of our efforts toward a synoptic visualization of pulsatile 3D flow that strives to show viewers all flow features simultaneously. The contributions are: a flow visualization technique for stereo viewing that quickly shows particle flow details throughout a volume; a novel poisson-based seeding strategy th...

We investigate the visual elements that will inhabit everyday environments after virtual reality becomes commonplace. Virtual forms have a richer, more flexible material than traditional metal, wood, and plastic. Both borrowing from traditional 2D techniques and inventing its own processes, VR enables artists and designers to push the envelope for...

Introduction Evaluation of scientific visualization methods is typically either anecdotal, with feedback from scientific users, or quantitative, with performance measured on simple abstract tasks performed by relatively nave users. While scientific users can provide domainspecific feedback, neither population is typically trained to provide visual-...

We present an application of a virtual reality (VR) tool to the problem of creating scientific visualizations in VR. Our tool allows a designer to prototype a visualization prior to implementation. The system evolved from CavePainting [Keefe et al. 2001], which allows artists to draw in VR. We introduce the concept of using an interactive legend to...

IntroductionEvaluation of scientific visualization methods is typically eitheranecdotal, with feedback from scientific users, or quantitative,with performance measured on simple abstract tasks performed byrelatively nave users. While scientific users can provide domainspecificfeedback, neither population is typically trained toprovide visual-design...

The scientific visualization community increasingly uses VR dis-play systems, but useful interaction paradigms for these systems are still an active research subject. It can be helpful to know the relative merits of different VR systems for different applications and tasks. In this paper, we report on the subjective usefulness of two virtual realit...

Hiding Spaces is an immersive VR Cave artwork which pushes past the limitations of physical media by exploring the new ambiguities that can delight the viewer in the virtual world. By using innovative tools developed especially for creative work within the Cave environment, in combination with more established digital methods and artistic practice,...

Presents a novel class of virtual reality input devices that combine pop-through buttons with 6-DOF trackers. Compared to similar devices that use conventional buttons, pop-through devices double the number of potential discrete interaction modes, since each button has two activation states corresponding to light and firm pressure. This additional...

This case study describes the process of fusing the data from several wind tunnel experiments into a single coherent visualization. Each experiment was conducted independently and was designed to explore different flow features around airplane landing gear. In the past, it would have been very difficult to correlate results from the different exper...